WRIGHT— CONTROL OF FOREIGN RELATIONS. 443 



Senator Maclay, who was present at the time, records the same iti- 

 cident in his journal on August 22, 1789.^ 



" I cannot now be mistaken. The President wishes to tread on the 

 necks of the Senate. . . . Ha wishes us to see with the eyes and hear with 

 the ears of his Secretary only. The Secretary to advance the premises, 

 the President to draw the conclusions, and to bear down our deliberations 

 with his personal authority and presence. Form only will be left to us." 



261. Criticisms of the American System. 



The prevalence of such incidents suggests that the difficulties 

 which arose between President Wilson and the Senate in consider- 

 ing the Peace Treaty of Versailles were not wholly due to person- 

 alities. It suggests that institutions may have been partly to blame. 

 Indeed, Viscount Grey, in his letter to the Times of January 31, 

 1920, said that the American Constitution "not only makes possible, 

 but, under certain conditions, renders inevitable conflict between the 

 Executive and the Legislature." 



American commentators have often deplored .this situation. 

 Frequently they have urged reform, usually in the direction of the 

 British cabinet system, but their attention has been centered upon 

 domestic affairs. It is an extraordinary fact that, with respect to 

 the control of foreign affairs, the reverse is true. British writers 

 have looked hopefully to the United States as a model for reform. 

 Thus, in his American Commonwealth, Lord Bryce says : ^ 



" The day may come when in England the question of limiting the 

 present all but unlimited discretion of the executive in foreign afifairs will 

 have to be dealt with, and the example of the American Senate will then 

 deserve and receive careful study." 



This opinion has been acted upon, and features of the American 

 system have been endorsed by the British union for democratic con- 

 trol of foreign relations founded in 1914.^ 



5 Journal of William Maclay, N. Y., 1890, p. 132. 



8 American Commonwealth, 2d ed., p. 104. 



'' " The Morrow of the War," first pamphlet issued by the Union of 

 Democratic Control, 1914, printed in Ponsonby, Democracy and Diplomacy, 

 London, 1915, p. 21. 



